1.9 Tdi

[ben hudson]

Just had a MOT and had to have new linkages (old ones had rusted up) on the rear wheels for operating the brakes using the hand brake.

Handbrake will hold car on the flat, but on a slight hill it will not hold, garage says its ok, because it passed the rolling road brake test.

Any advice on adjustment please?

Thanks Ben

[seatkid]

Passed the MOT? :) Rusty linkage not OK but ineffective handbrake OK? :)

 

The handbrake is self adjusting, operate the foot pedal firmly several times followed by the hand brake several times.

 

If the handle still comes up more than 5 notches then adjust at the centre linkage (located about a foot in front of the spare tyre).

 

If still no joy, then whoever change the linkages did it wrong.

 

If the garage that did the MOT changed the linkages, I would report them to the MOT standards people.

[Buncers]

Let us know which garage did this. I'm about to sue one that did damage to my Gal at it's last service.

 

see - http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/Forum/index.php?showtopic=1997).

[Ivor_E_Tower]

...and as far as the MOT is concerned, the handbrake has to provide a suitable method of slowing the car if the footbrake fails. If it won't hold the car on an incline, that doesn't matter, so long as it can slow the car at the appropriate figure!

[Denis]

Buncers, what damage did they do to your car?

[seatkid]

...and as far as the MOT is concerned, the handbrake has to provide a suitable method of slowing the car if the footbrake fails.  If it won't hold the car on an incline, that doesn't matter, so long as it can slow the car at the appropriate figure!

If it won't hold the car on the slightest incline then by definition it won't slow the car down. A incline of say 2% needs Brake efficiency of 2% to hold. Hand brake would normally be expected to be at least 20%. I think either the MOT testers have confused foot brake performance (rear) with hand brake, or more likely let it pass as they did the job!

 

Ivor, would you be happy with a handbrake that didnt hold the car on that incline to your garage? (which looks rather steep - maybe 8 - 10%?)

[Guest nimrod]

taken from...... http://www.motester.co.uk/index.html

HOW IS THE HANDBRAKE TESTED

Q. Could you tell me how you should check your handbrake, is there a minimum click level on the handbrake that the car shouldn't move when being pushed or the accelerator is applied.

-Terry Cuthbert

 

A. There should be reserve travel when the handbrake has been applied, and of course, it should properly lock the wheels. The latter is checked by the Testing station using a roller brake meter.

 

 

from my understanding then it should hold the vehicle and is tested on the rollers to that effect! as well as making sure there is not excessive travel of the handbrake lever hence the reserve travel

[seatkid]

As I recall, when I sneeked a look at the MOT manual, it specifies brake efficiency levels(%). Unfortunatley the rolling road measure Brake effort (in kgf) - this has to be converted to Brake efficiency by dividing by vehicle weight. (i.e. A mini doesn't develop as much brake effort as a Galaxy but the efficiency should be about the same) - I very much doubt whether the average brake tester appreciates this.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Seatkid - No I would not be happy with a handbrake that did not hold the car - I was just quoting the rules! My driveway is about 1 in 3 and when we moved in, the garage was used to store stuff, one car went under the car port and the other went on the driveway with a brick chocking one of the wheels each night just in case.....

Made sure that we soon cleared the garage out so that both cars could be on the level at night.

[ben hudson]

Thanks for the replies so far.

The handbrake only comes up one notch.

The garage did the test again for me while i watched, the wheels are put under load by the rolling road and handbrake resists the load which calculates a force throught the test equipment i could not disagree that it passed the MOT.

But the handbrake still will not hold the car on a slope.

is there any way of manual adjustment?

thanks Ben

[Guest nimrod]

If the hand brake passed the roller test it should in theory hold the car stationary

one notch of travel on the hand brake may not be a good sign, it could be that you are not getting enough pull on the brakes, can you physically pull it up any more notches?

[seatkid]

The garage did the test again for me while i watched, the wheels are put under load by the rolling road and handbrake resists the load which calculates a force throught the test equipment i could not disagree that it passed the MOT.

But the handbrake still will not hold the car on a slope.

This doesn't make any sense. Static braking force (i.e. stationary vehicle) is always greater than dynamic braking force. What was the kgf figure (each rear wheel)?

 

When you drive along the road (say 20 mph) and apply the handbrake hard, what happens? Can you lock the wheels?

 

Only conclusion is that somethings been put together wrong when they reassembled the brakes. If you physically cant pull up at least three notches maybe something is jamming. Or perhaps the pads have been contaminated with oil or fluid though this would effect the brake test result.

 

The handbrake on the Galaxy is quite capable of holding on very steep inclines (though it can release when it cools)

 

Who did the handbrake job? Why not complain to them?